Instagram To Begin Rolling Out Monetisation For IGTV Creators
Instagram is currently testing monetisation for IGTV. 18 months after launching, IGTV is yet to fulfill its potential in becoming a challenger to the big social entertainment platforms, however, this could be a major step forward.
Instagram has not previously offered IGTV users a way to earn a profit on the platform. As a result, creators increasingly used product placement across their IGTV content and pushed their followers to YouTube, where they can monetise their videos.
This development will mean we start to see more ads on IGTV, yet this also gives creators an incentive to regularly upload high-quality content, and so could lure over more YouTube and Facebook influencers.
We don’t currently have any information on what the thresholds will be for IGTV’s monetisation system, or how Instagram will split the ad money with its users, however, it is worth noting that Facebook Watch users take 55% of that monetisation split.
Instagram has long wanted to make IGTV a genuine consideration for its users, and this development is a sign that they are preparing to take on the major entertainment platforms.
Parasite Becomes First Non-English Speaking Film To Win ‘Best Picture’ At The Oscars
On Monday Parasite made history at the Oscars, taking home four awards. It’s director, Bong Joon-ho won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, whilst also picking up Best Foreign Language Film. Only 11 other non-English speaking movies have been nominated for Best Picture, including last year’s Roma, which was the first non-English film from a streaming service to earn the nomination.
This momentous night at the Oscars came in the wake of years of protests that forced Hollywood to assess it’s sidelining of minorities, and in 2016 saw the Academy vow to double minority membership by 2020. Whilst victory for Parasite is certainly a positive sign of inclusion at the Oscars, there were few other signs of inclusion from the Academy.
Snapchat Launches ‘Here For You’
Snapchat is launching a new in-app support tool – ‘Here For You’ which will help users to locate mental health resources. Over the coming months, this tool ‘will show safety resources from local experts’ to users who have searched certain topics, such as anxiety, depression, stress bullying and more.
This development comes at a time when much scrutiny is being put on social platforms to help promote user safety and wellbeing. This applies even more so to platforms such as Snapchat and Tik Tok who have predominantly younger audiences. This week TikTok also launched their ‘TikTok Tips’ account to share platform safety and wellbeing advice.
We can expect to see more of a concentration on user wellbeing across the major social platforms, and Snapchat, in particular, has indicated they will be undergoing a bigger health and wellness push over the next year.
Instagram To Add New Category Listings In Following Tab
Instagram has begun rolling out new category listings in their ‘Following’ tab, in an effort to encourage users to keep their feeds clean and relevant. This new development will divide users following tab into those profiles that are ‘least interacted with’ and ‘most shown in feed’. You will now also be able to sort users that you are following by date.
Instagram says that this development will help to ‘manage the accounts you follow on Instagram so that they best represent your current connections and interests’.
